Introduction: Every year more than 20 million infants are born with low birth weight worldwide. About 3.6 million\r\ninfants die during the neonatal period. More than one third of child deaths are thought to be attributable to\r\nmaternal and child under nutrition.\r\nObjectives: To systematically review the effect of supplementing various combinations and types of micronutrients\r\non the course and outcomes of pregnancy.\r\nMethods: Electronic search of Medline, Pub Med, Health Internetwork access to Research Initiative, and Google\r\nScholar databases was conducted. Outcomes of interest were birth weight, low birth weight, small size for\r\ngestational age, prenatal mortality and neonatal mortality. After exclusion of irrelevant /incomplete ones, 17 out of\r\n115 articles were considered for the final analysis.\r\nFindings: Majority of the articles reviewed favored the supplementation of micronutrients to pregnant mother.\r\nSome studies suggested calcium supplementation is associated with a significant protective benefit in the\r\nprevention of pre-eclampsia. The remaining articles reviewed, showed significant benefit of Multiple Micronutrients\r\nsupplementation during pregnancy in reducing low birth weight, small for Gestational Age births as compared to\r\nthe usual iron-folate supplements.\r\nConclusions: Supplying micronutrients, mainly multiple micronutrients have beneficial effect in reducing the risk of\r\nlow birth weight and other complications. Further studies at various combination and doses of micronutrient\r\nsupplements are recommended.
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